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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Homosexuality

“God never made mistakes in creating human beings!”

The statement above was said by one student of mine several months ago when I asked the class to discuss homosexuality/transgender/transsexual. I cited a statement of one transsexual I found in a book entitled Transekssualisme: “I was trapped in a wrong body.” And then I asked the class consisting of college students to discuss in small groups. The background of the discussion was the ‘gossip’ of one celebrity in Indonesia, Krisna Mukti. (Absolutely I am not a fan of infotainment program. However, I was interested in discussing this gossip in my class since the movement of feminism is indispensable from the movement of LGBT—lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. And I am an open claimed feminist as you can find in my blogs.)

In responding my student’s opinion (I directly realized that I was facing a group of students who would probably oppose my way of thinking that is pro to freedom of choosing sexual orientation), I had to do it very carefully and wisely.

Obviously I also do believe that God never made mistakes in creating anything; name it human beings, animals, plants, this universe. Human beings made mistakes though. In this case, including to limit human beings only into two kinds—female and male, and then decide that the ‘normal’ one is when female is attracted to male and on the way around, especially romantically, sexually, and sensually. Outside that, there must be something wrong. Strongly opining that “No one is supposed to think that he/she is trapped in the wrong body” is indeed narrow-minded because we view things only from one perspective, ignoring that there is another—even some other perspectives.

Based on researches done, anthropologists have classified human beings into at least four categories, in terms of sexuality:

Male that is sexually attracted to female

Female that is sexually attracted to male

Male that that is sexually attracted to male

Female that is sexually attracted to female

The strong influence of Abrahamic religions (read: Jewish, Christianity, Islam) narrowed the four categories into only two during the Victorian era, the first and the second categories, leaving the third and the fourth become unknown, and eventually they were labeled abnormal or against natural law.
The Dutch colonial government brought this influence to Indonesia; making some communities that used to give respected position to homosexuals (such as bissu community in Makassar, warok gemblak in Ponorogo, dalaq in Madura, shaman in Dayak Ngaju, etc) cornered and gradually disappear. Besides, the strong influence of two main celestial religions (Christianity and Islam) brought to Indonesia made the homosexual communities come to an end. While before, those communities were viewed normal, even respected.

Isn’t it time to start viewing things from other perspectives, to understand the way others think and feel, to be empathetic.

16 comments:

My question is: if human beings made mistakes, what makes you so sure that "limiting human beings only into two kinds" is the mistake? Following your logic, there is always possibility that the mistake human beings make was "classifying human beings into at least four categories"

My second question is about the Manji's quote. Yes, indeed, God can make her not a lesbian. But... as a Moslem, I believe Manji knows that there is two kind of taqdir: muallaq and mubrom. The Muallaq we cannot change, but Mubrom is open to change as long as we try to change it. Muallaq covers birth, death, and "jodoh". Other things are mubrom.

What makes you so sure that "homosexuality" is muallaq? How can you be so sure that God does not change it, because YOU have to change it yourself?

To John:My students did not say anything after that. I still could see dissatisfaction in their eyes after hearing what I said. But I also could see that they were also curious to know about this case more. I hope I have opened their mind about a new way of viewing things. :)

For 'maynot' ...thanks for dropping by and leaving this valuable comment, to continue the discussion.Some time ago I read a book in Bahasa Indonesia. I found a very interesting sentence saying, "Truth is future tense while good deeds are present tense. If truth has to be declared today, it becomes power."To find out the truth about how many kinds of human beings God has created, we have to ask God, right? We cannot find it now, because we have to wait until the D day when we can meet God. When someone insists that the truth is only two kinds of human beings, we will be authoritarian, to force other people to believe in what we believe. I am sure with my way of thinking, other people can be sure with their perspective in life of course. And then comes the next step, let us respect each other's way of thinking. For your second question about Manji's statement, I will answer the same thing again. We will find the truth later, after God declares why God made Manji as a lesbian. Thanks for the critical question. :)

Love the article and the comments by two of you, 'maynot' and 'feminist'.Allow me to share.1. Human being learns from mistake. For thousands of years, human evolve to be better and better.True, limiting Human's Passionate into 4 categories only, maybe still inadequate, but its better than 2. Beside, Feminist said 'at LEAST four categories', not 'four' only. So, for humanitarian sake, let them choose what they want, as long as not interfering with others.

2. Maynot thought that, it's people's will if they want to change. Do not blame God.Mean time, Menji's thought, if God let me be what I am then, I am ok. After all, God is the all mighty, the omny potent.Thus, 2 different perspectives.

Who’s right or wrong? Perhaps as Feminist said ‘wait till we meet ‘God’ and ask Him directly. At the mean time, let us respect each other's way of life.

Dear Cig,thanks a million for the comment. I completely agree with you that 'maynot' and I have contradictory perspective. Nevertheless, we had better respect each other's opinion, hadn't we?Let us live in peace.

Homosexuality is not only found in human. I know that at least penguins and flamingoes can be homosexuals. If we assume that animals have less capability to control their behaviour (compared to human), then we must conclude that they (these penguins and flamingoes) didn't choose to be homosexuals; or "God created them as homosexuals". But talking about God is a bit too far to my opinion, breeding resulted in endless variation in character and morphology, so why not in sexual preferences/characters?

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TOP TEN BLOGGER 2008

Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2008

The essence of blogging, as I put it as a jargon in my Bahasa Indonesia blog, is to culturalize the tradition of writing and reading. Many Indonesians, like those who are from developing or underdeveloped nation, don’t have the habit of writing and reading. They talk a lot. Write and read less. And that’s why, some foreign academicians who come to Indonesia were a bit shocked to find out the lack of reading and writing habit among Indonesians even within the so-called middle class family. The lack of reading naturally would end up in the lack of blog content “charisma”.There are a few exception, however. Those who can adopt a new positive tradition of modernity–in reading a lot. As a result they write many good articles, creating nice and unique posts and even making an enlightening comments in other blogs.

That’s one reason among others why I’d like to dedicate this year’s Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2008 specifically to those who consistently make a good content, and no less important, write relatively regularly. A content which is unique and enlightening. By so doing I hope what they have done will be emulated by others especially those bloggers who come later. It’s also my own way to appreciate and encourage those who passionately write good blog articles without worrying or thinking about traffics. A good content blog may not make a big traffic, and thus, a big impact in a short term, but certainly they will in a long shot.

Last but not the least, there are so many good blogs with good content. It’s a pity that I can pick only ten. It should not be understood, therefore, that the others ten are less good. The links in the bloggers’ name will direct you to the Blogger Indonesia of the Week review of a particular blogger from which you will find the blogger’s URL.